Thursday, April 15, 2021

Ups and downs

© Nneka Okorocha
View more art on Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy and disinformation 

Worldwide (Map) 
April 15, 2021 – 138,278,420 confirmed infections; 2,973,058 deaths
November 12, 2020 – 52,070,000 confirmed infections; 1,274,000 deaths

US (Map) 
April 15, 2021 – 31,421,361 confirmed infections; 564,402 deaths
November 12, 2020 – 10,258,100 confirmed infections; 239,700 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
April 15, 2021 – 1,560.000 confirmed infections; 53,500 deaths
November 12, 2020 – 740,255 confirmed infections; 19,951 deaths
***

News blues…

Over the next few days, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority, the South African Medical Research Council and the Department of Health will decide how to proceed with South Africa’s vaccination roll-out after use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was suspended, pending an investigation into six cases of blood clots reported in the United States. Read the article >> 

Healthy planet, anyone?

“… without pollinators there’s no ecosystem at all…”
Australia’s bushfires were devastating for bee populations. But steady rain and community efforts are seeing the return of the pollinators.
Read the article >> 

'No one explained': fracking brings pollution, not wealth, to Navajo land Navajo Nation members received ‘a pittance’ for access to their land. Then came the spills and fires.
Read “No one explained…” >> 
***
As South African officials try to convince South Africans that nuclear energy will “save us”, a reality check: no country in the world, even the most organized, knows how to manage the toxic legacy bequeathed by energy once said to be “too cheap to monitor”. Japan is way more organized than South Africa – a country that mismanages it’s coal-based energy production and delivery. Imagine SA with nuke plants. Groan.
Japan will release more than 1 million tonnes of contaminated water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear station into the sea, the government said on Tuesday, a move opposed by neighbours including South Korea and its own fishing industry. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Taking the bad with the good: a lesson.
Last week I gleefully reported a successful sale of my mother’s house. This week? Not so much. The buyers changed their minds – and we’re back to square one.
But this week started off with a trip to Shaka International Airport to pick up my daughter.
But this week started off with a trip to Shaka International Airport to pick up my daughter. Since she arrived late in the day, we chose to spend the night in Durban rather than run the gauntlet of death that SA’s N3.
Sunrise was glorious.






***
Days are getting shorter here:
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 16: sunrise 5:59am; sunset 6:13pm.
March 25: sunrise 6:05am; sunset 6:01pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 15: sunrise 6:18am; sunset 5:39pm.





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Saturday, April 10, 2021

Vaccine Hesitancy FYI

© Rich Black
View more art on Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy and disinformation 

News blues…

Forget trying to convince Anti-Vaxxers about vaccine efficacy. Rather, focus on 'Hesitant Vaxxers', the group that wants to learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine and its side effects before getting a shot. After all, 'Hesitant Vaxxers' are still open to being convinced.
According to William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt University, hesitant vaxxers want to learn more about the benefits of vaccination, while anti-vaxxers have already made up their minds.
“I’ve learned that you’ll never change the opinion of someone who’s truly against vaccination,” Schaffner said. “The more logic and reason you use, the more they dig in their heels.” Those who are hesitant, on the other hand, “just want to understand vaccines better.”
Read more >> 
***
April 9, SA had 1,267 new Covid-19 cases recorded in the past 24 hours, and 53 more deaths.
The new infections came from 30,560 tests, at a positivity rate of 4.14%.
April 8: South Africa had secured 51 million doses of vaccines from Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Pfizer BioNTech in the battle against Covid-19.
According to health minister Zweli Mkhize the country was still on track with its vaccination strategy and the second phase will start on May 17.
***

Healthy planet, anyone?

I am not a fan of, nor do I ascribe to, the Bill-Gates-as-Devil-Incarnate conspiracy theory. Bill Gates is an ultrarich guy and, IMHO, displays many of the features of ultrarich guys while also promoting a handful of quasi-progressive ideas and solutions. His climate change ideas are better than those of many ultrarich guys ‘n gals and worse than many truly progressive-though-not-ultrarich guys ‘n gals.
Bill Gates as farmer is, however, a stretch.
… So why did the Land Report dub LINK him “Farmer Bill” this year? The third richest man on the planet doesn’t have a green thumb. Nor does he put in the back-breaking labor humble people do to grow our food and who get far less praise for it. That kind of hard work isn’t what made him rich. Gates’ achievement, according to the report, is that he’s largest private owner of farmland in the US. A 2018 purchase of 14,500 acres of prime eastern Washington farmland – which is traditional Yakama territory – for $171m helped him get that title.
In total, Gates owns approximately 242,000 acres of farmland with assets totaling LINK more than $690m. To put that into perspective, that’s nearly the size of Hong Kong and twice the acreage of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe…. A white man owns more farmland than my entire Native nation!
Read “Bill Gates is the biggest private owner of farmland in the United States. Why?” 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I thought the day would never come when serious buyers made a serious offer on the house. I was wrong.
An extended family – grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts, and kids – viewed the house yesterday, loved it, stood around and bounced around their ideas for who would live where, and shared their visions with one another. It was a treat seeing a family work closely together on making decisions with far-reaching implications. That done, they said we could expect to hear from them by Monday and they departed the property.
Fewer than 15 minutes later, the head of the family called to make a good offer: 90 percent cash down, 10 percent bank bond/mortgage.
It’s an offer I can take to my mother and expect her to accept.
I’m dazed.
I’m amazed.
I’m thankful. It happened.
We have an offer on the house.
Now I work towards keeping things on track and moving forward, organize around the document transfer as I ensure the domestic worker and the gardener are retrenched according to labor law … and that the dogs get humane care.
It’s all do-able.
What’s the glittering and waving on the horizon? By golly, it’s my family in California and Texas waving to welcome my return.
Imagine! After almost two years cooling my heals under lockdown, I’ll see them again.
***
If all goes according to plan, I’ll “get outta Dodge” – American for “leaving town” – before South African days get too short and nights get too long. It happens quickly.
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 9: sunrise 5:55am; sunset 6:21pm.
March 16: sunrise 5:59am; sunset 6:13pm.
March 25: sunrise 6:05am; sunset 6:01pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 8: sunrise 6:12am; sunset 5:46pm.
April 11: sunrise 6:14am; sunset 5:43pm.

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Friday, April 9, 2021

Mercy, mercy me...

News blues…

Setting out to prove there’s a “lack of a scientific basis” and to question the widely held view that there is a clear causal link between simultaneous lockdown-related alcohol bans and the apparent decline in hospital trauma admissions, the South African Liquor Brands Association released results of research it commissioned several months ago.
South African Liquor Brands Association researchers do not believe that the decline of trauma admissions can be causally linked to the different levels of alcohol restrictions. Rather, they argue the theory fails to address alcohol restrictions that coincided with other lockdown restrictions that may also have had an impact on trauma admissions.

Read the article >> 
(Editorial comment: Not to be skeptical but… the South African Liquor Brands Association proving alcohol-abuse isn’t to blame? 
Hmmm. 
Surely, if research is accurate, a different, not-quite-so-self-interested organization should have been commissioned to conduct the research. South Africans, after all, have a less-than-stellar reputation with alcohol. Review results of a population-based survey on alcohol abuse in South Africa.)
***
***
The Lincoln Project: Another “inside the Beltway” view of Matt Gaetz: Stain  (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

“Poison is the wind that blows from the north and south and east” are lyrics from Marvin Gaye’s 1971 single “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)”  (3:16 mins). Gaye wasn’t known as an environmental scientist, but he provides a stark and useful environmental analysis, complete with warnings of overcrowding and climate change. 
The song doesn’t explicitly mention race, but its place in Gaye’s What’s Going On album portrays a black Vietnam veteran, coming back to his segregated community and envisioning the hell that people endure.
***
A new report from the Environmental Protection Agency finds that people of color are much more likely to live near polluters and breathe polluted air—even as the agency seeks to roll back regulations on pollution. 
This builds on the 2016 report “Racial isolation and exposure to airborne particulate matter and ozone in understudied US populations: Environmental justice applications of downscaled numerical model output” 

And, for the first time in four years – the lost years of the Trump era - US EPA again has a website providing the public a gateway to information on climate change and climate solutions. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Now that I’ve decided I must return to California to take care of my own life and responsibilities, the pressure is on. So much to do (try to do) to ensure the smooth operation of business while I’m gone. I face new anxieties and, as usual, little to no support from immediate SA family.
One does one’s best….
***
Latest news of the gardener is not good. He remains hospitalized. His wife reports he’s “asleep” most of the time.
***
Days getting shorter and shorter and nightfall earlier:
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 9: sunrise 5:55am; sunset 6:21pm.
March 18: sunrise 5:00am; sunset 6:11pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 2: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:53pm.
April 9: sunrise 6:13am; sunset 5:45pm.


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Thursday, April 8, 2021

Time flies...

Silly- but truism: Time flies like the wind/Fruit flies like bananas. 
My intention was to post more frequently this end-of-Lockdown-Week 54. Alas, life here has been a task fest, one task after another clamoring for attention. Along with lack of Internet connection at my primary abode, posting, like everything associated with getting online, is problematic.
The pandemic, however, marches on, 
Below, today’s numbers of infections and deaths compared to 6 months ago:

Worldwide (Map) 
April 8, 2021 – 133,132,000 confirmed infections: 2,888,000 deaths 
October 8, 2020 – 36,069,000 confirmed infections; 1,055,000 deaths 

US (Map) 
April 8, 2021 – 30,923,000 confirmed infections: 559,116 deaths 
October 8 – 7,550,000 confirmed infections; 212,000 deaths 

April 8, 2021 – 1,553,610 confirmed infections: 53,111 deaths 
October 8 – 685,155 confirmed infections; 17,250 deaths
***

News blues…

On the vaccine front:
The global scramble to produce enough Covid-19 vaccine for 7 billion people is about to get even tougher, as drugmakers and countries ready a second round of shots to combat the growing threat of virus variants. 

SA passes 10-million mark for number of Covid-19 tests done  as the country recorded 756 new Covid-19 infections on Wednesday, as well as 79 deaths 
***
The Lincoln Project: A bit “inside the Beltway” but...  Matt Gaetz (1:03mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Carbon dioxide levels in atmosphere reach record high. Concentrations are 50% above pre-industrial levels despite dip in emissions during Covid pandemic 
***
What would a tropical reef look like if it could escape the man-made perils of global heating and overfishing? A new study in the journal Ecology and Evolution suggests it would look like Rowley Shoals, an isolated archipelago of reefs 260km off Australia’s north-west coast.
Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

House still not sold. The one purchaser who made an offer has decided that, since we’ve had no “better” offer than his, he can dictate new terms. We’ve a clause that states if any better offer comes along before he is granted a bond/mortgage, we can accept that offer. He has not yet applied for a bond.
The other realtor tells me he’ll bring a “very, very interested” cash client to view on Saturday. 
Hold thumbs!
(The issue is not lack on interested buyers, but that interested buyers cannot get a bond/mortgage. I suspect the above purchaser – the dictator – might not get a bond. I admit that, disappointing as it might be in the long term, I’d be happy enough - on behalf of my mother - if his bond application failed.
I do not like dictators or folks who take financial advantage. 
Yes, I know that’s the way of the world. It is not, however, my way.
***
The gardener remains in hospital. To date, I’ve heard no solid diagnosis on his condition. Speculation among neighbors? A stroke. Malnourishment. HIV. You name it, he’s got it.
Meanwhile, with the advent of fall/autumn days with rain and cooler weather, khaki and other weeds spread their prolific seeds thither and yon. After 6 weeks of subpar attention to the garden, I found an affordable garden service. It comes with a story:
“Jane” is a mother and local small businesswoman with a take-away (“to go”) shop. Her husband, after two years of incompetent medical care, succumbed to a spider bite. (Yes! Life in SA’s medical system ain’t a walk in the park.) Jane needs extra income and branch into providing gardening services. With her nephew and a couple of other young males contracting with her, she’s building a clientele.
I found Jane through a neighbor and, yesterday, her two-man team arrived – with their own tools, refreshments, and lunch. Jane’s service fee for two workers for one day is equivalent to the gardener’s weekly costs – using our equipment and petrol, plus the gardener’s breakfast and lunch – and I clear prolific water lilies as he’s “scared of snakes.”
Yesterday’s work was interrupted by rain although Jane’s team theoretically stays until the work is finished. (Ours is a big garden and gardening is never done.)
I’m relieved to have one worrisome item off my long list of worrisome items.
***
South African days getting shorter while nightfall happens earlier:
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 9: sunrise 5:55am; sunset 6:21pm.
March 16: sunrise 5:59am; sunset 6:13pm.
March 22: sunrise 6:03am; sunset 6:05pm.
March 29: sunrise 6:07am; sunset 5:58pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 8: sunrise 6:12am; sunset 5:46pm.

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Sunday, April 4, 2021

Sunday morning, coming down

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I departed California January 2020 and arrived here for a three-month visit. Fifteen months later and I’m still here.
My primary delay was involuntary: hard lockdown due to pandemic. Then settling my 87-year-old mother into a Care Center, now the delay is trying to sell her house.
December 9, 2020, I accepted the keys to my new home: a small, one-bedroom, new semi-detached home with garden. I could move in anytime.
Four months later, I’ve never slept there. Indeed, to date, the longest chunk of time I’ve ever spent there is five or six daylight hours. I am semi moved in – chairs, sofa, bed frame sans mattress, but no stove, no fridge, no hot water kettle, no coffee maker.
To maintain security and a semblance of normality for the long-term domestic worker, four dogs, and the neighborhood’s troop of marauding vervet monkeys, I sleep at my mother’s house with its 30 steps, 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, separate cottage, three levels of garden - includes a stream with two malfunctioning culverts (one totally block, one so-so blocked) - a double garage, shed and two lean-tos stuffed with miscellany, one small swimming pool with finicky filer, and a garden pond overgrown with invasive pond lilies…
Expense decrees I choose between paying  for Internet at my new place and forgo it at my mother’s house. I chose to connect my new home. This means that most mornings I depart my mother’s house for my new home, carrying my laptop, my (failing) iPhone 6, various batteries and cables associated with keeping those items charged, a handwritten list of the day’s tasks, a snack, and whatever tools I need for the day.
With a nine hour time difference between SA and California and a seven hour time difference between SA and Texas, I forgo regular phone calls to the States, too. (By the time I arrive at my new place, only one night owl friend is awake to chat.) 
Most days, I visit my mother during the Care Center’s tight lockdown schedule, between 10 and 11 a.m. I also exercise, garden, and, masked and sanitized, maintain sufficient social distance to conduct the business required to sell my mother’s house and property.
I return to my mother’s house early afternoon to relieve the domestic worker, clean the pool, sort through more miscellany, and continue prepping the property for sale.
This is a cumbersome and increasingly burdensome way to live.
California’s hot property market lulled me into believing, naively, that my mother’s house would sell quickly. It’s been six months and, while buyers have expressed interest, we’ve had no offers solid enough to attract the bank bond/mortgage paperwork to complete the deal.
I’ve must return to California to tend to my own life and responsibilities.
For more than a year, I’ve earned no income, but pay a monthly marina fee for my houseboat moored in a sun-drenched slip and collecting algae and invasive water plants. I also pay storage fees, vehicle insurance, and further assorted fees associated with California living.
Maintaining my mental health and a semblance balance is increasingly difficult.
The “little things” threaten to tip me over the edge.
Take my iPhone 6. I’m reliant on – addicted to? – reading library books on my phone’s Kindle app. Alas, Apple, in its infinite push toward profit, not people, decreed that it would no longer support the iPhone 6, originally produced with a poorly designed internal battery.
In the face of the phone’s continuing failure, I’ve limped along with it attached to an external battery – itself recently replaced with a locally sourced external battery.
It’s easy, in my schlepp to and from locations, to leave behind an item.
Yesterday, despite checking and rechecking, I departed my new place without the single most important item - the lightening cable that enables charging the phone so I can read Kindle books when I'm awake at night.
Reading allows me to constructively engage and “park” my mind rather than lie in the dark in bed and fret about the future, my friends and family, my mother, my daughter’s impending visit during a pandemic, and other ongoing day-to-day troubles.
Last night, I worried about how I’d survive a whole night without my iPhone/Kindle security “blankie.”
After tossing and turning for hours in the dark under my mosquito net, I opted for the big pharma rescue: a mild sleeping pill.
Great move!
I slept well. Moreover, I’ve glimpsed into the longings, fear, panic, and sheer emptiness that must accompany anyone addicted to anything. And thank the gods I’m not addicted to anything more dangerous than an iPhone and Kindle app. Nevertheless, not to push my luck, I hopped out of bed early and headed to my new place …and my charger cable/security blankie.

***
South African days getting shorter while nightfall happens earlier:
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 9: sunrise 5:55am; sunset 6:21pm.
March 16: sunrise 5:59am; sunset 6:13pm.
March 22: sunrise 6:03am; sunset 6:05pm.
March 29: sunrise 6:07am; sunset 5:58pm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 4: sunrise 6:10am; sunset 5:51pm.
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Friday, April 2, 2021

Trust the system?

© Jen Sorensen

***
It’s hard to understand a man like Alex Berenson who lies consistently about a pandemic and, on his way, sews distrust in a system already faltering under loads of misinformation. Yet here he is, “The Pandemic’s Wrongest Man. In a crowded field of wrongness, he stands out.” 

News blues…

As SA records 1,294 new Covid-19 infections and 51 fatalities in the past 24 hours, a vaccination program appears to be in the works for Africa.
Africa has secured 400 million doses of J&J Covid-19 vaccines — enough to vaccinate more than half its target of 750m people — as it edges towards the third wave of infections, said Africa CDC director, Dr John Nkengasong, at his weekly coronavirus update on Thursday. 
More than 4.2 million cases of Covid-19 have been reported in Africa and more than 1,120,000 deaths, accounting for 4% of deaths reported globally. Africa has reported 3% of the world’s Covid-19 cases.
South Africans are one step closer to vaccinations, too. I even know someone who will be vaccinated next Thursday. She’s a health care work not in direct contact with Covid patients – that is, not in a hospital setting – but in a health care setting. Things are looking up!
***
America is entering its fourth coronavirus surge. And this time, it appears to be driven by an even deadlier variant of the virus. Luckily, the country is prepared, having already vaccinated tens of millions of people. “If we act quickly, this surge could be merely a blip for the United State….”
Those who haven’t yet gotten their first dose remain particularly at risk… and, unfortunately, many of the regions seeing outbreaks are home to major vaccine-distribution inequities. … two strategies the country can use to snuff out the current rise in cases:
Read “The Fourth Surge Is Upon Us. This Time, It’s Different.A deadlier and more transmissible variant has taken root, but now we have the tools to stop it if we want.” 
***

Healthy planet, anyone?

Dr Shanna Swan, professor of environmental medicine and public health at Mount Sinai school of medicine in New York City, studies fertility trends. In 2017 she documented how average sperm counts among western men have more than halved in the past 40 years. Count Down is her new book.
Dr Swan was interviewed recently:
You’ve spent more than 20 years examining the effects of hormone disrupting chemicals on reproductive health. Are you now sounding the alarm? 
SS: I am directly speaking to this hidden problem people don’t like to talk about, which is their sub-fertility or reproductive problems, and how that is tied to the environment. People are recognising we have a reproductive health crisis, but they say it’s because of delayed childbearing, choice or lifestyle – it can’t be chemical. I want people to recognise it can. I am not saying other factors aren’t involved. But I am saying chemicals play a major causal role. It is difficult to use that word, “cause”, but it’s a body of evidence. We have mechanisms, animal studies, and multiple human studies.

Read the interview >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

A surge, that’s what I’m experiencing: a surge in desire to return to California, a surge to make a deal “finished and klaar” on my mother’s house, a surge of responsibility for my own life’s version of “death and taxes.” With an eye toward returning to California with my daughter – she arrives next week – I’m working even harder to accomplish necessary tasks: sell household items, give away what can’t be sold, and dump the rest. But as I’ve repeatedly learned over the past year: what can do wrong, will go wrong.
  • The gardener’s illness, incompletely diagnosed as this, that, or the other thing, ranging from candida to HIV, worked Monday and reported he was “coming right.” Alas, on his way home after work, he semi-collapsed. Next morning, an ambulance was called to his home after he suffered severe vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, and physical incapacity. He was rushed to a local hospital then taken to a second, more efficient, hospital. Later that day, his wife reported “his brain was bad.” Diagnosis? Meningitis. He was returned to the first hospital...where he remains.
    I suspect meningitis may be an opportunistic infection after he suffered 5 to 6 weeks of debilitating – and misdiagnosed – illness. Meanwhile, I must find a temporary, affordable gardening service to keep weeds at bay. 
  • The lower lawn is strewn with miscellaneous “stuff” – from many meters of mixed electrical and fencing wire, planks, poles, assorted tools, window frames…. I continue sorting this miscellany into piles to auction, give away (how? To whom?) and dump (how?). The latest problem – besides having no help to accomplish any of this? The “bakkie”/pick-up truck has a petrol/”gas” leak and should be driven only by someone with a surge of interest in a gruesome death. And that ain’t me. 
  • The past year has taught “pool gal” much about maintaining a pool and filter on a shoestring yet… another challenge. Efficient filtering of water requires sufficiency of water. The pool currently has an insufficiency of water. Water is expensive. Nevertheless, I must add more. Accordingly, I located and laid out the household’s elderly hosepipe. Alas, its length is just short of reaching the pool. Moreover, it is absent the pipe fitting required to attach pipe to faucet. Was it one on many similar fittings added to the big bag of sprinkler and plumbing fittings sent last week to the auction? It's Easter weekend: local hardware stores shuttered until next Tuesday. 
  • The local print weekly reports fire damage to a small school and that building materials are needed. This household has building materials available. But how to bring together need and availability? The bakkie/pick up has a petrol leak. I’ll phone next week and, if the school is not closed for Good Friday … or due to Covid … I’ll suggest they find someone to fetch the materials.
***
My mother continues to improve… and trying to climb out of her Laziboy and walk. I guess Easter, with its history of miracles, is thetime to try for another miracle. Meantime, I’m encouraging more practical efforts: stretching arms and legs, drinking fluids, and practicing writing with a pen.
***
South African days getting shorter while nightfall happens earlier:
Feb 26: sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm.
March 2: sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm.
March 9: sunrise 5:55am; sunset 6:21pm.
March 18: sunrise 5:00am; sunset 6:11pm.
March 27: sunrise 6:0xam; sunset 6:0xpm.
April 1: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm.
April 2: sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:53pm.

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Thursday, April 1, 2021

Catching up...

Worldwide (Map) 
February 25, 2021 -128,260,000 confirmed infections; 2,805,000 deaths
February 25, 2020 -  112,534,400 confirmed infections; 2,905,000 deaths
January 21 – 96,830,000 confirmed infections; 2,074,000 deaths

US (Map)
February 25, 2021 -  30,394,000  confirmed infections; 551,000 deaths
February 25, 2020 - 28,335,000 confirmed infections; 505,850 deaths 
January 21 – 24,450,000 confirmed infections; 406,100 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)
February 25, 2021 -  1,547,000   confirmed infections; 52,790 deaths
February 25, 2020 -  1,507,450 confirmed infections; 49,525 deaths
January 21 – 1,370,000 confirmed infections’ 38,900 deaths

News blues…

President Ramaphosa addresses and updates the nation on Covid-19 Lockdown  (27:40 mins) :
Alert Level 1 remains in place, however measures put in place for Easter weekend to combat a rise in infections
  • Curfew remains midnight to 4am
  • Public spaces such as beaches, parks, and dams remain open, but subject to usual health protocols – social distancing, wearing masks, sanitizing
  • Funerals restricted to 100 attendees, maximum of 2 hour services
  • Inter-provincial travel permitted though caution required
  • Alcohol restrictions: sale at offsite locations prohibited Easter Friday through Monday. Onsite sales – restaurants, bars, shebeens – allowed, subject to licenses
  • Easter religious gatherings restricted to 250 people indoors and 500 outdoors
  • Small venues: no more than 50 percent of capacity allowed.
Within 15 days there’ll be a review of the pandemic, the state of compliance, and will respond swiftly at any signs of a resurgence of infections.
***
***
This week’s news controversy:
It was supposed to offer insight into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, but since its release last Tuesday, the long-awaited World Health Organization investigation has drawn criticism from governments around the world over accusations it is incomplete and lacks transparency. Here’s an excerpt from Tuesday’s story:
According to a draft copy of the joint WHO-China study on the origins of COVID-19, transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario and that a lab leak is “extremely unlikely.”
…researchers listed four scenarios in order of likelihood for the emergence of the virus named SARS-CoV-2. Topping the list was transmission through a second animal, which they said was likely to very likely. They evaluated direct spread from bats to humans as likely, and said that spread through “cold-chain” food products was possible but not likely.
The closest relative of the virus that causes COVID-19 has been found in bats, which are known to carry coronaviruses. However, the report says that “the evolutionary distance between these bat viruses and SARS-CoV-2 is estimated to be several decades, suggesting a missing link.”
…
The draft report is inconclusive on whether the outbreak started at a Wuhan seafood market that had one of the earliest clusters of cases in December 2019.
The discovery of other cases before the Huanan market outbreak suggests it may have started elsewhere. But the report notes there could have been milder cases that went undetected and that could be a link between the market and earlier cases.
“No firm conclusion therefore about the role of the Huanan market in the origin of the outbreak, or how the infection was introduced into the market, can currently be drawn,” the report says.
As the pandemic spread globally, China found samples of the virus on the packaging of frozen food coming into the country and, in some cases, have tracked localized outbreaks to them.

Read “WHO Report Says Coronavirus Likely Spread From Animals To Humans. According to a draft copy obtained by The Associated Press, a lab leak is “extremely unlikely” as the source of the virus. 
And... here’s the (inevitable?) news blowback:
In a joint statement, the United States and 13 other governments, including the United Kingdom, Australia and South Korea, expressed concerns over the study's limited access to "complete, original data and samples."
The European Union issued its own statement, expressing the same concerns in slightly softer language. The criticism follows an admission from WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, that investigators faced problems during their four-week mission to the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first detected in December 2019.
In a news briefing Tuesday, Tedros appeared to contradict the study's central findings by suggesting the theory that the virus escaped from a Wuhan laboratory should be followed up - even though the report noted such a possibility was "extremely unlikely" and did not recommend further research on the hypothesis.
The WHO investigation, conducted more than a year after the initial outbreak, came under intense scrutiny from the outset. Some scientists and the US government have questioned the independence and credibility of the study, raising concerns over Chinese government influence. Beijing, meanwhile, has accused Washington and others of "politicizing" the origin of the virus.  
Read “14 countries and WHO chief accuse China of withholding data from pandemic origins investigation” >> 
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In a White House press conference Monday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said she felt a sense of impending doom over the uptick in COVID-19 cases.
“I’m watching the cases tick up. I’m watching us have increased numbers of hyper-transmissible variants. I’m watching our travel numbers tick up, and the sense is, I’ve seen what it looks like to anticipate the oncoming surge,” Walensky said. “And what I really would hate to have happen is to have another oncoming surge just as we’re reaching towards getting so many more people vaccinated. You know, we’re still losing people at 1,000 deaths a day. And so I just can’t face another surge when there’s so much optimism right at our fingertips.”  (1:22 mins)
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In the macrocosm, for people who’ve had the privilege of making their own life decisions, aka “following your bliss …”, not knowing is the most difficult state of being to accept.
Kudos then, a year into Covid-19, for admitting that, when it comes to coronavirus, “We just don’t know” what comes next.
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic may drag on for years, but the nightmare of last year—of an entirely new viral illness, emerging in a specific sociopolitical context—is behind us. Instead we’re facing a new set of challenges, and they are not easily comparable to what has come before. It’s worth considering a new way of thinking about the period of the pandemic now ahead of us—one that leads us neither to complacency nor to paralyzing despair. In many ways COVID-19 is already over. What lies ahead is COVID-21.
Diseases are not static things. Pathogens change, hosts change, and environments change. In the case of COVID, all three are now different than they were in 2020. What began as one coronavirus has infected well over 100 million people and evolved into new forms that appear to transmit more readily and infect us in subtly different ways. Our immune systems have changed as well, as a result of fending off infections. And, of course, our lifestyles have changed, as have social standards, medical systems, and public-health programs.
COVID-21 is the product of all these changes in aggregate.

Read “Covid-19 is different now” >> 
***
The Lincoln Project: 
“Rupert”  (0:55 mins)
"Why we fight" (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Photo essay: The Great Vaccination Campaign 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

South African days getting shorter while nightfall happens earlier:
Feb 26:    sunrise 5:47am; sunset 6:33pm
March 2:  sunrise 5:50am; sunset 6:29pm
March 9:   sunrise 5:55am; sunset 6:21pm
March 16: sunrise 5:59am; sunset 6:13pm
March 25: sunrise 6:05am; sunset 6:01pm
April 1:     sunrise 6:09am; sunset 5:54pm

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